Author: feelthebyrnesite

With the power and reach of the internet continuing to grow, it’s difficult to consider any one brand as domestic anymore. It’s very easy for a consumer to stumble up0n a brand from a foreign country while browsing on the internet. Therefore it has now become almost required that marketers make adjustments and take their brands internationally.

Consider your product differentiation and competitive advantages. What are international customers already buying or choosing? Build on your successes.”

” 2. Select Your Target Markets Wisely

Consider your budget first; this will always be a limiting factor. Narrow down the five to seven key countries and/or cities you want to target. If you have data on where your customers or leads are already coming from, pay attention to patterns in those numbers to help focus your efforts.”

” 3. Regionalize and Localize Your Message

Identify existing messages and advertising within your target markets and review it for quality translation, cultural sensitivity, and relevance. Remember, idioms rarely translate clearly, and make sure any acronyms or English-exclusive words are not misunderstood.”

“4. Utilize Digital Marketing to Widen Your Reach

Use online global geo-targeting and ad boosts. Target leads who are similar to your existing customers. On the international level, Facebook is still the best application to do this, says Navitas. Using the lookalike feature, you can target prospects who are similar to your current customers.”

“5. Engage Brand Advocates

Connect positive experiences of current customers with prospective customers.

Gather testimonials. Your already-satisfied customers in international markets are your best marketers. Leverage them as influencers.”

By following these five guidelines, marketers will already put themselves in a more advantageous position. Additionally, they can save a lot of money that could have been spent on pointless or unsuccessful campaigns in other countries. Expanding globally is a very difficult task, but if you take the time to really evaluate your market and find those that will truly enjoy your product/service then success will follow.

Nielsen is a company built on the system of studying the trends and habits of consumer markets worldwide and they’ve gotten to be very effective at it. They study every media platform, the number of users that are on it, and as a result have become a very useful tool for marketers at many different companies.

Just last month, Nielsen conducted another one of their studies on live music events and those who attend them. The study proved that live music events are far from being dead and that they can be an excellent opportunity for not only marketers within the music industry but also general marketers.

Some of the interesting statistics from the article written on the study are below:

-“U.S. adults 18+ who have gone to at least one concert/festival in the past year (live music attendees) spend 60% of their average annual music spend on live events. Comparatively, they spend 12% of their spend on satellite radio and streaming subscriptions and 12% on CDs/vinyl.”

– “69% of Millennial music event attendees and 79% of Hispanic music event attendees say they would view a concert sponsor more favorably if it handed out branded merchandise.”

-“34% of live attendees who are unable to attend live events say they follow along on social media, 21% say they read reviews afterwards and 17% text people who are in attendance. In addition, 29% of live music attendees say they check artists’ websites and social media accounts after events.”

This information opens up several doors for potential marketers. First off is the available market that they can go after. There is still a large group of people who enjoy going to concerts and marketers are given the opportunity to show their brands in an environment full of enjoyment.

However, it is also important to take note of how you’re advertising to the consumers. As Nielsen points out, a majority of the concert goers appreciate branded handouts as opposed to brand posters or brand names on the stages. Additionally, there is an opportunity for marketers to reach those consumers who were unable to attend the live event, perhaps on social media or on other review sites. The bands themselves can market on their own sites by putting up video footage that will draw fans to their pages, creating opportunities to sell merchandise and tickets to future shows.

As powerful as music streaming and download sites have become, there is still importance associated with live events and marketers need to take note of it.

With the 2016-2017 NHL season well underway, the focus of hockey fans should be on their hometown/favorite squad. However, in this particular season, there is something distracting fans all over the nation. Next season there will be a league expansion (the first since 2000), and Las Vegas will have a brand new NHL franchise.

According to Naila-Jean Meyers of the New York Times, just last month the future franchise took care of one of the most important tasks on its to-do list: announcing a name and the team’s logo. After much deliberation and some backlash from outside parties, the name was finally settled as the “Golden Knights.” The logo can be seen below.

Source: The Golden Knights shared an image of their logo on Social Media

Although they are very important steps in creating a future franchise, the management team still has a long list of tasks ahead in order to prepare for their debut in the 2017-2018 season. One of those tasks, which Meyers points out, is “completing sponsorship deals, negotiating TV rights and selling a bunch of new Golden Knights gear.” This is the part of the league expansion process that has tremendous implications for all marketers in the sports industry. First of which is the opportunity to sponsor the team. Having your brands logo associated with a brand new team which is already generating tons of hype and in a market that is flooded with tourism all year round is a great opportunity.

Additionally, the marketing staff of the Golden Knights is going to be very busy for the next year trying to come up with ways to market all the new merchandise for the team along with season ticket packages, and individual game tickets. TV networks will have to duel it out for the rights to broadcast the team’s games, and since it is a brand new team, viewership will most likely be high in the first few seasons. So the potential is quite abundant for interested sponsors

It’s very evident that the arrival of this new franchise next season is creating tons of buzz around the league and amongst its fan base. So as a marketer, it would be a strategically smart move to associate one’s company with Sin City’s newest attraction.

As part of my graduate experience, I’ve been challenged with coming up with new innovative product ideas, and the marketing plans that will help them to succeed. However, my peers and I have never had to do a real product launch and for that reason I wanted to provide the perspective of a real life professional.

In the article by Geoff Cunningham Jr, he talks about how differentiation is the key to launching a really successful product. The typical marketing factors (distribution, manufacturing, etc.) are also important but if you’re going to separate yourself from the competition and attract a following you must differentiate. To do so, he says marketers must ignore these three mindsets:

-“We are leaving out (fill in the blank) important audience.”

–“What if we alienate or anger this or that brand/person with our new brand?”

–“Our product is better than XYZ product and we need to tell them all the reasons why.”

Source: Hubspot

The importance of differentiation for marketers lies within the word itself, “different.” It’s necessary for marketers to do away with the thought process that Cunningham speaks of in his article because it will allow them to stand out and get the attention of their audience. For more on this article, click the author’s name above or for another perspective from Hubspot, click the above picture.

Similar to a post I did a couple of weeks ago, this post highlights another technological innovation in the sports industry. As time moves on, the age old question still remains: How do we keep the fans excited? What can we do to make the experience different and memorable to the fans?

Well, FoxSports, College Football, and GoPro may have just found an answer. Just last week, the major sports network and GoPro collaborated on a project that would provide fans with a whole new perspective on College Football. They created special hats, implanted with GoPro technology, and had the referees wear them during the game. The clips were then used in the actual game broadcast and on social media, as reported by Mark J. Burns from sportstechie.com.

“It’s in our FOX Sports DNA to constantly challenge our team to come up with new and interesting ways to enhance the viewing experience, bring fans closer to the action and make the story of sports even more compelling … this project with GoPro accomplishes all of that.”

Some of the footage from the Minnesota/Wisconsin game can be found in the video below.GoPro has always been known for making some of the most innovative and versatile cameras. They have changed the way that people use a camera in everyday life and they’ve now wedged their way into the sports realm. This could prove to be very important for sports marketers because of its possible application to all sports leagues. Imagine watching your favorite hockey team or basketball team from the ice/court. It changes the dynamic of how sports are viewed and for that reason it needs to be taken into consideration by all sports marketers in all different sports.

In the past few years, the major professional sports leagues have been constantly looking for ways to become more innovative and create a more engaged fan base, whether it be through Social Media initiatives or in-game experiences.

One of the most recent of these innovations, according to SVG News, is the arrival of PlayStation Virtual Reality (PSVR) at the Barclays ATP Tennis Finals last week. The tournament took place at the O2 in London and according to the staff at SVG: “Visitors to the Fan Zone at The O2 will be able to immerse themselves in matches by stepping into unique interactive pods featuring PlayStationVR where they will find themselves in a virtual tennis world.”

And…according to ATP Executive Chairman & President, Chris Kermode: “We look forward to unveiling this pioneering new technology at our season finale at The O2, offering a new and exciting way to experience our sport, as we look to leverage new technologies and engage with the next generation of fans.”

This pioneering effort by the ATP is very important for future sports marketers. The major sports leagues should follow this initiative as it could prove very important for increasing fan engagement. It gives the consumer a whole new perspective on the game and gives them an incentive for coming to the game. This particular strategy is a good one because PSVR was voted one of the top inventions of 2016 by Time Magazine, so it will no doubt become a very popular and recognizable product by consumers. This is yet another reason for marketers to consider utilizing the technology in their live sports events.

Take a look at the video below for more on PlayStation VR from GameSpot’s YouTube page.

The trend in the past decade has been one towards heavy use of smartphones. This movement is heavily propagated by the millennial generation. Due to this fact, many of the top social media companies are focusing their attention on mobile devices and mobile ads.

Not immune to this trend is Twitter, and according to a post by eMarketer, “this year…digital ad revenues at the company will increase 13.2% to $2.26 billion, of which $2.00 billion will come from mobile placements.”

(Source: eMarketer.com)

The graphic above represents the growing movement towards using Twitter on mobile. With this information, it is no surprise that Twitter has begun to focus digital ads on mobile. Seeing this, it should be obvious to other firms that it is time to make a move towards mobile as well.

This all comes at a time when Twitter has been struggling to compete with the other social networks out there. Currently, Twitter is used by 16.1% of the US population and about 3.9% of the world population (eMarketer.com). So creating new, enticing methods of attracting users is at the forefront of Twitter’s strategy, and it may start with the right step towards the mobile platform. Click the graphic above to read the full article from eMarketer.

Millennials have grown up in a time of great technological change, and for years have been at the forefront of every new gadget, app, or social media platform. As a result, they’ve become accustomed to adapting and utilizing every new innovation (Zimmerman, 2016). But have they been doing so effectively?

When social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. began, they were more for social interaction and not so much for marketing. With the unimaginable growth of all the most popular social media companies, it now becomes crucial for millennials to take advantage of the marketing potential found within. Especially in a time when most of this generation is either in the early stages of, or just beginning their careers (Zimmerman, 2016)

This is all highlighted in an article written by Kaytie Zimmerman called “5 Ways Millennials Can Use Social Media To Advance Their Careers.” According to Russ Fradin (quoted in the article), CEO of Dynamic Digital, the 5 areas to focus on are:

“Building long-term relationships

Creating professional accounts

Setting up social listening alerts

Posting meaningful content, and

Being consistent”

It not only becomes critical for millennials to be active on social media, but businesses as well. Creating more relationships, can create more business. For more information, and the video related to the article, click on the picture below

Credit: Pexels.com

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